It seems like just yesterday that Australians were contemplating watching some of the rubbish shown on ESPN, such was the lack of interest in the local summer sporting fare.

The one-sided two-Test series against Sri Lanka in November was making the World Paintball Championships (yes, ESPN actually covers this) look like the most exciting thing to ever happen to world sport.

When that series finished, there was a three-week gap before the Chappell-Hadlee series against New Zealand got underway, and we all remember what a ball-tearer that was.

Luckily, the famine has turned into a three-course banquet.

The tennis has been terrific. Roger Federer being taken to five sets in the early rounds of a grand slam is rarer than the Swiss ace actually having something interesting to say at a press conference.

Jelena Jankovic’s first-round escape against Tamiar Pascek was engrossing stuff – and don’t get me started on Casey Dellacqua.

Her upset against Amelia Mauresmo basically displayed in a nutshell why sport is so great.

I’ll also admit I was one of those people with no life who watched Lleyton Hewitt’s match against Marcos Baghdatis until the end.

But while the tennis has been good, the cricket has been even better.

Australian fans have been crying out to see our boys in the baggy green getting tested. Thankfully, the Indians’ great performance in the opening three Tests has lived up to the pre-series hype.

The racism drama has dominated the majority of the column inches, but I for one wasn’t too unhappy when we lost our first home Test in four years in Perth last week.

Watching the Sri Lankans being dismantled earlier in the summer was a mild form of torture.

At least this is competitive.

Which leads us to the third jewel in the Australian summer landscape – the A-League.

Football Federation Australian boss Ben Buckley must be happier than Czech tennis player Radek Stepanek, who is getting over his split with Martina Hingis by going out with hot countrywoman Nicole Vaidisova (how much luck can one man have? It’s not fair).

If someone had told him at the start of this season that four teams would be level on points heading into the final round of the regular season, he would have had them institutionalised.

But that’s what happened, setting up what should be a tremendous finals series starting this weekend.

Average crowds are up from just under 13,000 last season to more than 14,600, and that is due mainly to the closeness of the league.

So, in short, this weekend we will be able to watch the Australian Open men’s and women’s finals, the first week of the A-League semis, and the third and fourth days of the Adelaide Test match.

Wives and girlfriends across the country have about as much chance of getting their blokes to mow the lawn or paint the fence this weekend as I have of making the golf world tour.

But then again, all those odd jobs were probably completed in November anyway.

But this weekend, ESPN’s exclusive coverage of the World Scrabble Championships and World Poker League will just have to take a back seat.